Discuss the evolution of collegium system in India. Critically examine the advantages and disadvantages of the system of…

The Collegium system evolved through judicial interpretations of Article 124(2). In the First Judges Case (S.P. Gupta, 1981), the Supreme Court granted executive primacy in appointments. The Second Judges Case (1993) reversed this by interpreting "consultation" as "concurrence", creating the Collegium. The Third Judges Case (1998) expanded it to the Chief Justice of India and four senior-most judges. In 2015, the Supreme Court struck down the 99th Constitutional Amendment and the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, reaffirming judicial primacy as integral to the basic structure.

The Indian System Its primary advantage lies in shielding the judiciary from executive overreach, preserving judicial independence, and preventing political packing of the bench. However, it suffers from opacity, an absence of fixed, objective evaluation criteria, susceptibility to nepotism, lack of accountability, and persistent delays caused by friction over the Memorandum of Procedure.

The US System Under Article II of the US Constitution, the President nominates Supreme Court judges subject to Senate confirmation following public hearings. This ensures transparency, public scrutiny, and democratic legitimacy through legislative checks. Conversely, it creates severe politicization of the judiciary, enforces ideological litmus tests, and fosters partisan standoffs, as seen in the stalling of Merrick Garland (2016) and the polarized confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett (2020).

Critical Assessment While India insulates judicial independence at the cost of transparency, the USA achieves democratic accountability at the cost of bench neutrality. The solution for India is not importing the polarized US model, but reforming the collegium into a structured, transparent mechanism with published criteria, balancing institutional autonomy with public accountability.